Request region (multiplayer ability to request a region from another player)

Notification pings on the mini map

Lots of Balance updates

Lots of AI improvements

Bug fixes

The new features will be integrated into version 1.5 of Ashes of the Singularity (the base game).

The first reviews are in

As I write this, Escalation is sitting at an 82 on metacritic with a 90 from GamingTrend, an 85 from GameWatcher and an 81 from IGN.

We expect to have the German, Italian, French, Portuguese language versions in within the next few weeks.

A few questions answered

Q: Do you have to have Ashes of the Singularity to get Escalation?

A: No. It’s a stand-alone expansion. It lists for $39.99 for new players and $19.99 for existing Ashes of the Singularity players.

Q: Does this mean that the base game won’t be updated anymore?

A: No. We expect to release v1.45 for the base game within the next couple of days and new features and content we create will generally be available for all versions of Ashes of the Singularity. The base game will continue to receive new DLC, new features, etc.

A: Yes, we are working on two new Dreadnoughts that will be added to the game along with a few surprise new units early next year.

Q: I’d like to see new races?

A: They are planned. The Escalation campaign infers the existence of two more races that we hope to join us in the game.

Q: Will I have to have Escalation to get these new races?

A: No.

Q: What about modding?

A: Our long-term plan is to turn Ashes of the Singularity into a platform for people to make their own games with. Much of that will require time and more tools to be made. You can already do a lot with the game as is (see the modding guide) but our explicit goal is that a customer could use Ashes to remake Total Annihilation or Supreme Commander or any number of RTS games in the future. This won’t happen overnight but that’s our goal.

Multiplayer

While most people will play Escalation as a strictly single-player game, we are putting a lot of effort into improving the multiplayer game as well. We include a save game feature (and autosave) in the event that there are connection problems the game can be reformed and continued. But there is a lot more we can still do to make multiplayer really fun.